Imagine this:
You and I are sitting down having a pint in the late eighties, and I tell you that in just a few years’ time there will be machines available to ordinary guys, just like you and me.
These machines will be programmable, and they’ll do the work for us.
You would have either thought I had gone mad, or that I was talking about some episode from Star Trek.
Well, They’re here - those machines are now a reality - and you can have one!
Table Of Contents
So, what is a CNC machine?
Let’s get right down to basics.
What does CNC actually mean? Computer Numerical Control.
There are various types of CNC machines – which will get to in a moment – but they all have one thing in common:
A computer drives them rather than you driving them.
Think of the autopilot on a Boeing 747. The pilot programs the flight plan into the flight management system, and the computers do the rest. The result, of course, is absolute precision.
Why Should You Want To Have A CNC Machine?
How many times have you suffered from your drill slipping a millimeter, or a saw heading off in its own direction messing up an entire piece of wood?
This doesn’t happen with a CNC machine.
When you are crafting your woodworking project, there will always be a slight imperfection when sawing, cutting and drilling by hand, it is inevitable.
But, with a CNC machine?
All you need is to program the computer, tell it what you want to do, and it will obey your commands to the letter.
With this in mind, you will grow to appreciate the accuracy and precision, particularly when you need to make more than one of something.
If you make them by hand, they will be almost identical;
If you make them using CNC machinery, they will be absolutely identical, meaning no more wobbling chairs, no more wobbling tables.
And that can mean the difference between a full glass of beer, or a spilt glass of beer during the BBQ months which is reason enough to have the machine alone!
You will also find that you have much more of the most valuable asset in our lives, time. Seriously, a CNC machine can do things in minutes which will normally take you hours or even days by hand.
In a nutshell, you want to have a CNC machines for the following advantages:
High accuracy.
High productivity.
Processing complex cut or shape.
Higher level of automation.
So that you now know about the advantages of having CNC machines.
You prboable wondering what are the types of CNC machines and which one is most used for woodworking.
Here, The CNC ROUTER is the most used CNC machine in woodworking. It basically does what a traditional router does but certainly the CNC router has advantages over the traditional one. Here you can check out the best cnc router kit for woodworking